We already have the tech to send someone across the pond in about 10 minutes, but they'd be a mass of pink goo when they arrived. Flinging highly trained and conditioned fighter pilots thru the air at several times the speed of sound is one thing, but you simply can't stuff grandma into a ballistic missile, subject her to 2-3 figure g-force, and still expect to be in business the next day. The whole concept is just a sci-fi pipe-dream that writers trot out every few years to sell newspapers and magazines.

In all honestly, nobody would give a shiat about how long it took to get somewhere if they'd get rid of the unions and enforce some reasonable age, weight, and surly-attitude limits on the sky waitresses, combined with a separate soundproof compartment to hold children, drunks, and general assholes. Hell, if I was getting steak and blowjobs from supermodels the whole trip, I wouldn't care if it took a week to go a hundred miles.